A lot of horror movie remakes have came out recently, Let Me In, the American version of Let the Right One In, and Fright Night, and The Crow are to be scheduled for release in the near future.  But the one that most are talking about is the remake of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.

Visionary filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, director of Hellboy, and Pan’s Labyrinth, has written the script.  Del Toro is known for his fantastical monsters, and scary undertones to his movies.  Well, so far Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark has people shaking in their boots even when watching the trailer.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is a monster movie about a young introverted girl named Sally Hurst (Bailee Madison).  Sally is threatened by the monsters whom have been locked up in their new house for years.  Moving in with her father Alex (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes), she has to persuade her father of monster’s existence if she is to survive.

Del Toro was brought up in an extremely Catholic household, when he was young he started to make small movies and then learned make-up artistry from the legendary artist Dick Smith who worked on The Exorcist.  His most critically acclaimed movies consist of the two movies set during the authoritarian rule of Francisco Franco, El Laberinton Del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth) and El Espinazo Del Diable (The Devil’s Backbone).

Many of Del Toro’s movies are themed with child-like horrors with a child protagonist.  Primarily, Del Toro’s work and sense of style is derived from his childhood.  Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is one of his movies that draws heavily from his childhood.

When Del Toro was a kid, he had watched the movie made for TV under the same name as Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.  He claims it was one of the scariest movies he has ever seen. “For my generation it was the scariest TV movie we ever saw.  It creeped out my whole family and it stayed on my mind,” Del Toro said in the production notes.

When all the writing, shooting, and editing was finished, the movie was sent to the MPAA  (Motion Picture Association of America).  The hopes of obtaining a rated PG-13 were dashed when the movie came back stamped with an R-rating.  Del Toro and the creators spoke to the MPAA to see what they could change for a the lower rating.  The MPAA responded, “Why ruin a perfectly scary movie?”

Troy Nixey is set to direct.  Prior he has only directed one short by the name of Latchkey’s Lament.  His real achievements lie with comic books.

Nixey was an illustrator for Only the End of the World Again, written by Neil Gaiman.  Nixey had also co-created the comic Trout and is know.  In his comics Nixey usually draws very dark and sinister illustrations.  Nixey’s directing will complement Del Toro’s fantastical and frightening style and add to the chills that will run up the audiences’ spines.

Del Toro is one filmmaker that is hard to say anything bad about.  His movies never fail to chill and entice the audience with his fantastical monsters.  The trailer for Don’t be Afraid of the Dark scares the viewer in the first minute, it is not hard to become hooked in the first minute.  With only one directing credit to his name, Nixey will have his work cut out for him for his first major film.

People at the Virginia Film Festival are already raving about the movie, while many others fear to see more than the trailer when it comes out August 26th.

Image COurtesy of  http://www.facebook.com/DontBeAfraidoftheDark

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